Mt Vernon Autoclean stuck (gonna be a long night...)

[john193]

So I get home today after work and the stove is cranking full blast. It is about 11F here right now. I look at the burn pot and it looks strange, take a closer look and there is a gap between the floor and the side of the burn pot. Almost as if at some point during the day the stove went into autoclean and the bottom of the pot never shut completely. I had never seen this before, I did a complete clean and scrape this past Saturday.

As the stove shut down it went into the autoclean cycle on it's own and got stuck. I got my error message and proceeded to clean whatever I can. Found nothing that could be jamming the mechanism, except for the fact that there were lots of hot pellets smoldering/burning in the ash pan. Tried about a few more times, unplugged the stove and nothing. The bottom moves about halfway until it gets stuck.

I suspect i may have had an inadvertent fire in the ash pan. Not sure how this could have happened. Gonna call the dealer tomorrow morning for help.

 

[imacman]

Hope you have a back-up heat source.

 

[john193]

oil

 

[john193]

hopefully Eric shows up and chimes in, but if it was me i would be forcing that thing

Well i had never really studied the autoclean mechanism until now. After a few tries with the system I did try to force it by hand and it really did not want to move. At this point I didnt want to screw anything up. The stove is practically new, it was installed in Oct of 2012.

I scraped the pot for almost 2 hours, just got some minor stuff off it. The burn pot floor also had some minor clinkers and still no dice after scraping them off. The floor of the burn pot is like and ice rink now!

 

[DexterDay]

Is it carbon build up?? That's preventing it from moving??

 

[john193]

Well i see no major deposits anywhere. Even checked the rails that the autoclean runs on, they were fine. Scraped the pot for literally 2 hours, I'm not new to pellet stove maintenance so I'm just really puzzled. At this point, I can only assume it is a defect with the autoclean system. The burn pot floor is stuck about 50% of the way. It moves 10% in each direction, that is about the extent of it's motion.

 

[LMPS]

Isn't there springs that are part of the auto clean mechanism? I wonder if one of them came lose during the cleaning. If you take out the ash pan can you get under with a flash light and see any spring hanging down?

 

[john193]

No sir.

 

[tsmith]

I have had this problem in the past and I have had to clean the pot floor with my Dremel tool to remove small hard deposits that get stuck when it slides across.The pot floor is shiny silver when I am done. Also I use Dielectric grease on the auto clean slide rails for lube. You can also check the arm that connects the floor to the motor, if you remove the ash pan and look in on the rear left side, you will see the arm, it is fastened with a single nut. If that nut is loose, it will cause the motor to not be able to close the floor right. If all this fails there where new auto clean springs that came out, but if I remember correctly they are stiffer than original and will push the floor tighter to the pot. The next thing is that maybe the auto clean motor is losing it's umph. Is it still under warranty? If so I would have them replace it if need be. Good luck.

 

[john193]

BTW the door must be closed for the AC to work

yes, the thermostat control also gives a warning when it is open.

Thanks for the video. Yes this is how it used to work, but now i just hear it moaning and groaning and the pot floor moves no where. The handle as seen in the video does move up and down as part of the autoclean motion.

 

[tsmith]

try my suggestions, they worked for me.

 

[john193]

The pot is stuck at 50% open. I can budge it another 25% closed, but that's it. At this point the oil burner is well on its way keeping the house warm. Any other time of the day I might have entertained the idea of a dremel. If the half millimeter of carbon is halting the autoclean I think I'd rather take the stove back. Lets see what the dealer says in the am. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[smoke show]

You can also check the arm that connects the floor to the motor, if you remove the ash pan and look in on the rear left side, you will see the arm, it is fastened with a single nut. If that nut is loose, it will cause the motor to not be able to close the floor right. Is it still under warranty? If so I would have them replace it if need be. Good luck.

Qft. good advise.

 

[Speed3]

I think I can help. My stove was most likely built at a similar time as yours and it was installed in August. I had the same issue 3 weeks ago. The auto clean motor came unbolted from the unit. I fussed with it for quite a while before calling the dealer. They came out and quickly discovered the problem. It appears the main bolt on the side of the motor mount had not been tightened properly. Problem solved and at no cost to me. Check into it.

 

[john193]

**Update

Well I called the daler this morning and unfortunately they were booked up all day so the earliest they can come out to take a look at my stove is tomorrow. They initially told me that I did all the cleaning they would have normally asked and said the problem can be one of two things, 1) the rails that the autoclean rides on are dirty and are therefore hindering movement, or 2) the autoclean arm/motor is going bad.

So he had me disconnect the nut that connects the arm to the autoclean mechanism, at this point I was able to freely slide the bottom of the burn pot with my hand. With how much the stove was struggling you would think I couldnt move it, moved just fine. I then proceeded to clean the rails, sure they had a minor amount of carbon on them, but nothing of consequence. I also lightly lubricated the rails. At this point, I could move the bottom of the pot with my pinky. Once I did this, I reattached the arm to the burnpot and turned the stove off to see if it would autoclean, it did; however, the burn pot did not close all the way, it closed about 90% of the way. It was good enough for the stove to have considered the autoclean cycle complete and it proceeded to fill the pot and fire up the ignitor. At this stage, i took a screwdriver and slid the bottom of the pot until it was fully closed.

So right now, I have fire and the house is nice and pellet stove warm! The dealer will be here tomorrow to inspect the autoclean mechanism. As a side note, the stove has cycled through 2 auto clean cycles so far, both times it was not able to close the burn pot fully. With all the cleaning and lubrication there is no reason it is still struggling.

 

[imacman]

well, guess that leaves a bad motor/arm

 

[john193]

Update 2

The dealer came out and examined the stove. He dismantled and reassembled the autoclean mechanism and now works like it always did. His thinking was likely carbon build up somewhere unbenounced to either him or me, as the motor and arm were operating normal. He commented that there was no obvious build up. He also indicated that there is no reason to lubricate the autoclean rails but I might do it. It did smooth out the movement.

 

[john193]

I assume so. Or the removal and reassembly got rid of whatever was hindering smooth operation. Good to know should it ever happen again, I'll be more conscience of vacuuming and maybe dust brushing that area.

 

[Bioburner]

When you get the pot cold and clean, try getting some powdered graphite and rubbing it into the bottom and pot. I did that with my Ex santa Fe and helped keep the unit moving and the carbon from sticking so hard.